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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29672556">(lungs on fire)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elsin/pseuds/Elsin'>Elsin</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>better luck next time - nauticalwarrior, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>(certainly lighter than canon lmao), (light-ish? i think?), (temporary), (to canon fantasy elements), 5 Things, 5+1 Things, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fanfiction of Fanfiction, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Addiction, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Inspired by better luck next time, Light Angst, Nausea, No Beta We Die Like Izuku, Post-Canon, except ofc the last iteration, i am making the executive decision that MOUSE REMEMBERS NONE OF THIS</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 06:21:39</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,276</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29672556</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elsin/pseuds/Elsin</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Mouse is not a good person to lie to.<br/><em>or</em><br/>Five lies Izuku tells Mouse after it's all over, and the one time he figures out the truth.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>359</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>better luck next time and related works</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>(lungs on fire)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">


        <li>
            Inspired by

            <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28394571">better luck next time</a> by <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/nauticalwarrior/pseuds/nauticalwarrior">nauticalwarrior</a>.
        </li>

    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>i... may or may not have gotten Mouse's speech patterns right. and may or may not have gotten her exact power mechanics right. idk anymore lmao.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>i.</em>
</p>
<p>“It’s over,” Izuku says numbly.  He’s sitting on the sidewalk, Mouse leaning into his side, a blanket draped over both of them.  It doesn’t do much to protect them from the rain misting gently down, but it’s not exactly cold outside either so that’s not terrible.  “It’s over.  I promise.”</p>
<p>Mouse’s arms tighten around him.  “You can’t know that.”</p>
<p>“But I do,” he says.  “Look.”  He points to the faraway police cars, where Aizawa is talking to one of the officers.  “He’ll do right by you,” Izuku says.</p>
<p>For a long moment she doesn’t react.  Then she pulls away from him and looks up, meeting his eyes fiercely.  “Has he always done right by you?”</p>
<p>“Yes,” says Izuku, thoughtlessly.  He does not consider the quirk assessment when he says this; he does not consider any of the little things that, if he thought about them, if he were to add them up, he might consider to be Aizawa doing less than right by him.</p>
<p>Her eyes flare red, and his lungs burn, but he smiles down at her anyway.  He did not know that was a lie until it came out of his mouth; <strike>he does not know what the truth would be</strike>.</p>
<p>Mouse is not a good person to lie to.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>ii.</em>
</p>
<p>“It’s over,” Izuku says numbly.  His arm, draped over Mouse’s tiny shoulders under their shared blanket, is trembling.  “It’s all over.”</p>
<p>“I hope so,” Mouse says softly.</p>
<p>They sit in silence for a little while, Izuku trying to figure out a way to reassure her that won’t lead him into the lie he told last time.</p>
<p>“I know so,” he says.  “We’re with the heroes, now.  They won’t hurt you.”</p>
<p>“But you were—with them too,” she says.  “And—have the heroes hurt you?”</p>
<p>Izuku hesitates this time; but he does not think of all the hurt this society has heaped on him for how he was (appeared to have been) born; he does not think of a dozen little slights; he thinks of the Gekkeiju, and what they would consider to be <em>hurt.</em>  “No,” he says.</p>
<p>His lungs fill with fire.</p>
<p>Mouse is not a good person to lie to.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>iii.</em>
</p>
<p>“It’s over,” Izuku says numbly.  He stops then, pulls Mouse closer into his side.</p>
<p>“Over,” she echoes.</p>
<p>“Everything’s going to be okay,” he tells her.</p>
<p>She’s the one who hesitates this time.  “Can you show me what… that… looks like?”</p>
<p>“I can,” he says, and, well, he really walked into <em>that</em> one, didn’t he.</p>
<p>He hasn’t been anything close to <em>okay</em> in a very long time, and it doesn’t particularly surprise him when his chest starts to burn.</p>
<p>Mouse is not a good person to lie to, <strike>but Izuku doesn’t know how to tell the truth anymore</strike>.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>iv.</em>
</p>
<p>“It’s over,” Izuku says numbly.  He swallows down the faint nausea that threatens to rise in his throat and tips his face up into the mist.  “It’s <em>over.”</em>  Even on his own tongue the words taste like lies.</p>
<p>Mouse sighs.  “Don’t know what <em>over</em> means here,” she says.  “I know… I know the <em>word.”</em></p>
<p>“It means,” says Izuku, who thinks he knows what questions she wants answered, “that you don’t have to ask anyone questions, if you don’t want to.  It means that they can’t hurt you anymore.”</p>
<p>“What about you?”  She’s staring at him, and he knows this question was no accident; she knows he knows all the rules, but she wants the <em>truth.</em></p>
<p>He pushes away the memory of Heaven, always lurking in the back of his head, waiting to come out when he’s at his weakest.  “They can’t hurt me anymore, either,” he says.</p>
<p>His ribcage burns from the inside out, and with him distracted by the pain he cannot hold his longing for Heaven at bay.</p>
<p>Mouse is not a good person to lie to.  <strike>She is also not the person for whom these lies are intended.</strike></p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>v.</em>
</p>
<p>“It’s over,” Izuku says numbly.  His stomach rolls; his whole body aches.  His mouth tastes like ashes, even though he knows the effects of Mouse’s quirk were undone by his own.  “It’s—it’s over.”  It doesn’t feel real; it’s been so long since he joined them—</p>
<p>(only it hasn’t been that long, not long at all, but it <em>feels</em> so much longer—)</p>
<p>—and Izuku isn’t sure what he’s going to do, now that this is done with.</p>
<p>“Nothing worked before,” Mouse says.</p>
<p>“This time is different,” Izuku promises her.  “I know the heroes who helped me—they’re good people.  They’ll help you.  You won’t have to be anyone’s weapon, not anymore.”</p>
<p>She tilts her head.  “You’re their weapon, though,” she says.</p>
<p>“No,” he whispers, his own words already rising to choke him.</p>
<p>“Aren’t you?”  She’s pushing him; she wants the <em>truth,</em> he knows, and he does not know if he can give it to her.</p>
<p>“I’m not,” he says.</p>
<p>The smoke swirls up his throat once more.</p>
<p>Mouse is not a good person to lie to.  And if Izuku wants to tell her the truth, he’s going to have to stop lying to himself first.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>vi./+i.</em>
</p>
<p>“It’s over,” Izuku says numbly.  He blinks sharply against the black spots dancing at the edges of his vision, shakes his head to try to dispel the shifting colors that are blocking out the street in front of him.  And he swallows his nausea again, so much stronger than it was the first time; he is <em>not</em> going to start throwing up blood in front of Mouse.  Not now of all times.</p>
<p>“You’re hurt,” Mouse says, pulling away from him a little.  This time she isn’t staring him down, half-daring him to lie to her.  This time her eyes are wide and worried.</p>
<p>“Only by my own hubris,” he says with a grimace.  “It’ll pass, after a while.”</p>
<p>“Oh,” she says.  Then, “Your quirk.”</p>
<p>“Yeah,” he admits.  “Quirk backlash.  Don’t worry about it—like I said—it’ll pass.”</p>
<p>“Okay,” she says, then settles against his side again.  For a few minutes they sit there in silence, the mist soaking into their hair and beading up on the blanket.</p>
<p>“I can’t promise you it’s going to be easy,” Izuku says finally, “because—it probably won’t be.  But the Gekkeiju are gone.  They can’t hurt you anymore.  And I trust Aizawa-sensei.”</p>
<p>“You trust him.”</p>
<p>“He’s made mistakes before.”  He shrugs.  “So have I.  So has everyone.  But he means well.  He’s never going to hurt us on purpose, and he doesn’t <em>often</em> make mistakes.”</p>
<p>“It’s over,” Mouse says, echoing the words he’s said six times over now.  “No more questions.”</p>
<p>“No more questions,” he says.  “Not unless you want to ask them.”</p>
<p>“Don’t know how to—do things—now it’s over.”</p>
<p>Izuku laughs softly, though it isn’t really funny.  “Me neither,” he tells her, and something tightly wound in his chest starts to unravel.  He can, he thinks, breathe a little easier.  The scents of the rainy city fill his nose, bright and clear.  “I guess we’ll just have to learn together, won’t we.”</p>
<p>Mouse nods, a movement he feels against his side more than one he sees.  “Together.”</p>
<p>They sit there out in the open, rain gently settling on them, until Aizawa frees himself from talking to the police and comes over to them, crouching down to their level.</p>
<p>“We can go back to U.A.?” Izuku asks.  Aizawa nods.  He turns to Mouse.  “You want to come home with me?”</p>
<p>“Yes,” she says, soft as her namesake.</p>
<p>So they stand up together and follow Aizawa into a car, the blanket trailing from Mouse’s shoulders and slipping off Izuku’s.</p>
<p>They do not look back.</p>
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